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23rd January 2018

(2018 Black Bull Lamborghini Huracan GT3)

Scots teenager Sandy Mitchell will step up to the European-based Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup this season. The 17-year-old from Forfar, backed by Black Bull Whisky, will drive a 190mph Lamborghini Huracan GT3. With two successful seasons racing a McLaren in the British GT4 Championship — where he became the youngest-ever race winner, aged just 16 — already under his belt, Mitchell is switching to the more powerful GT3 class. The Scots young gun will share his Barwell Motorsport-prepared Lamborghini with 23-year-old Italian Michele Beretta and 20-year-old Croatian Martin Kodric. The trio will contest the new, ultra-competitive Blancpain Silver Cup Junior Pro Class when the season starts at Monza in April.

Mitchell, a member of the British Racing Drivers’ Club Rising Star scheme, will also make his 24-hours debut when he contests the Blancpain GT’s Blue Riband race, the Spa 24Hours, at the end of July. “I’m extremely excited to make the step up to the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup in the 'Black Bull' Huracan GT3,” Mitchell, now in his first year of the MSA Course at Loughborough Sports College, said. “It will be a very competitive championship and I’m looking forward to the challenge. I am new to the Lamborghini Huracan, but with the experience of Barwell Motorsport and my team-mates, Martin and Michele, I know I will learn quickly.”

While Mitchell will be making his GT3 debut, both his team-mates are official Lamborghini Squadra Corse Junior Drivers, with Beretta winning the Blancpain Sprint Silver Cup title in 2016 and then the Italian GT Championship crown last year. Kodric, meanwhile, won three Blancpain Pro-Am races with the team’s Lamborghini last year.
“As a trio, I have no doubt we will be very strong,” Mitchell continued. “I’m looking forward to my first test of the car with Martin and Michele, and it will be great to get detailed inside knowledge from the guys who have already won races in the Blancpain GT Series.”

Supported by Huntly-based Black Bull Scotch Whisky as his main sponsor, Mitchell, is further backed by a number of other Scottish companies including Thorntons, Tunnocks, Invertay Homes, Proviseo Funding, Stirfresh and Celurca Investments, plus global companies Christie and Stampede.
“Racing a Lamborghini Huracan GT3 in the Blancpain GT Series is a fantastic opportunity,” the young Scot acknowledged, “and I would like to thank Black Bull and all my sponsors for their continued support."

Mitchell’s race car will carry a striking new black and white livery, marking Black Bull’s return to Barwell Motorsport. The Scots whisky company previously sponsored the team when it ran the successful Ecurie Ecosse BMW GT3 in 2014-15. "We're delighted to be working again with Barwell Motorsport,” Euan Shand, chairman of Duncan Taylor Scotch Whisky and Black Bull, said. “As our company sells whisky in more than 50 countries, we're looking forward to enhancing our global brand awareness that racing in the Blancpain GT Series will bring. We have been big supporters of GT racing for several years now and have sponsored teams with Sandy Mitchell at the wheel since he was 15. “He is a hugely talented young driver and we’re delighted he is making his debut in GT3, along with the more experienced Michele Beretta and Martin Kodric. We wish the team great success and look forward to the season ahead.”

The Black Bull-backed Lamborghini will start its testing programme in Portimao, Portugal, next month, before moving on to the official Blancpain pre-season test at Paul Ricard in southern France on March 13-14.
Further testing is scheduled at Monza and Silverstone prior to the first race of the Endurance Cup at Monza on April 22. The Blancpain GT Series also races at Brands Hatch and the Nurburgring, plus Barcelona, Misano and Hungary.